There are many different risk factors for Capgras syndrome, including having dementia or Parkinson's. Some people develop it after using large amounts of recreational drugs or alcohol. Others have had health issues like low thyroid, another metabolic condition, or a nutrient deficiency, like being short on vitamin B12.
CS is linked to brain damage in the bifrontal, right limbic, and temporal regions. [3] The damage leads to aberrant memory functions, self-monitoring, and reality perception. Such neurophysiological deficits cause an inability to integrate emotional information processing and facial recognition correctly.
Historical Perspective
CS is named after Joseph Capgras, a psychiatrist of French origin. In 1923, Joseph Capgras first defined the disorder in a paper that reported a case of a French-origin woman who complained that corresponding doubles had replaced her husband and other persons she knew.
People with Capgras syndrome usually believe the supposed imposter has bad intentions. This can lead to aggression or violence, sometimes putting other people at risk. The exact cause is unknown, but people with Capgras syndrome often live with other mental health conditions, such as schizophrenia or dementia.
Unfortunately, there's currently no cure for Capgras syndrome, and even treatment can be challenging. If a person with this condition has another mental disorder that has been linked to the condition, treating that mental disorder can sometimes ease symptoms of Capgras syndrome.
The delusion most commonly occurs in individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia but has also been seen in brain injury, dementia with Lewy bodies, and other dementia. It presents often in individuals with a neurodegenerative disease, particularly at an older age.
The prevalence of Capgras syndrome among the general population is 0.12%, while in the psychiatric population rises to 1.3% [6-8]. The etiology of Capgras syndrome can be variable, being in most of the cases associated with preexistence neuropsychiatric conditions [4].
From this figure we estimate a 0.12% prevalence of Capgras Syndrome in the general population. Capgras Syndrome is often associated with medical illness and when found should signal the alert clinician to investigate for occult organic conditions.
The Capgras syndrome was described almost a century ago. It is characterized by the recurrent and transient (ranging from minutes to months) belief that a person, usually someone closely related, has been replaced by an imposter.
In dementia patients, the Capgras delusion can come and go. Usually, the person or people who are around the most become the impostor.
Capgras syndrome (also called Capgras delusion) can be defined as a delusion when someone believes that the psychological entity of others is different though they are externally the same (delusion of doubles). [1] Such delusions have been reported in schizophrenia and other psychiatric illnesses.
Capgras syndrome is the delusional negation of a familiar person (or persons), in which the patient believes that the misidentified and familiar persons are identical physically but different psychologically. Fregoli syndrome is the delusional identification of a familiar person in strangers.
Nature of the disease: Patients with Fregoli delusion believe that the many people around him or her are actually the same person in many different disguises. Capgras syndrome, on the other hand, causes the patient to think that someone who he or she interacts with on a daily basis has been replaced by an impostor.
Capgras syndrome involves delusional misidentification in diverse primary psychotic or major affective disorders, as well as in neurological disorders, including traumatic brain injury, epilepsy, stroke, and dementia.
In contrast to patients with prosopagnosia, who cannot consciously recognize previously familiar faces but display autonomic or covert recognition (measured by skin conductance responses), people with Capgras delusion do not show differential autonomic activity to familiar compared with unknown faces.
Several illegal substances that precipitate Capgras syndrome can be identified within the drug abuse group, such as cocaine, alcohol, and cannabis [1,10,11].
Defects in visual/spatial cognition, including hallucinations and Capgras syndrome, are common in Lewy body dementia (LBD). In Capgras syndrome, a person holds a delusion that a friend, spouse, parent, or other close family member has been replaced by an identical-looking impostor.
Types of delusion after stroke
Believing you or someone else is an imposter (Capgras syndrome). Thinking that there are two copies of a place, such as a room or house (reduplicative paramnesia).
Some people with Capgras syndrome may never achieve a full recovery. However, caregivers and family members can help reduce their loved one's symptoms, including anxiety and fear.
Fregoli and Capgras delusions sound similar but are different! In Fregoli delusions, the patient believes that there is a single individual (usually a persecutor) is masquerading as several other people, whose appearances he or she assumes at different times.
Capgras syndrome is the delusional belief that a friend, family member, etc., has been replaced by a twin impostor. Fregoli syndrome is the delusional belief that different people are in fact a single person who is in disguise.
1, 2 The Capgras syndrome was defined as a delusional psychiatric syndrome by Capgras and Reboul–Lachaux in 1923. In this syndrome, the subject believes that his/her relatives have been replaced by impostors, whereas in the Cotard syndrome, the patients deny their own existence or of a particular part of their body.